A winner on LIV Golf during the league’s initial eight-tournament invitational series in 2022, Eugenio Chacarra criticized the organization for promising that it would offer Official World Golf Ranking points and said he will look for a way to eventually get to the PGA Tour.

A former star player at Oklahoma State who left college early to sign a three-year deal with LIV Golf in the spring of 2022, Chacarra, who is from Spain, told the social media site FlushingItGolf that he was disappointed with the way things played out. He played for Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs team but was not retained.

His plan is to compete in Asia this year, with the hope of getting DP World Tour invites and a chance to playing in the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament at the end of the year.

Chacarra, 24, criticized LIV Golf for not pursuing OWGR points, of which he said he was assured upon his signing.

“I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes,” Chacarra told Tom Hobbs, who runs the FlushingItGolf account. “How you get major access and ranking points. On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money. It doesn’t matter if you finish 30th or first, only money. I’m not a guy who wants more money. What will change my life is playing in Hawaii and qualifying for the majors, qualifying for the Masters, the Ryder Cup.

“When I joined LIV they promised OWGR and majors. But it didn’t happen. I trusted them. I was the first young guy, then the others came after I made the decision. But OWGR and majors still hasn’t happened. I saw you last year when they pulled the bid. It’s frustrating, but I’m excited for the new opportunity to see where my game takes me.”

LIV Golf applied for OWGR recognition early in July of 2022 but was told in October of 2023 that its application was denied for reasons that included a lack of player pathways to the league.

There is no weekly qualifying and no turnover of players from week to week, unless there is illness or injury. At the end of the year, LIV Golf promoted just one player via its Promotions Event (down from three in 2023) and nobody qualified via the Asian Tour’s International Series because the lone spot was earned by existing LIV player Joaquin Niemann.

In March of 2024, LIV Golf said it was withdrawing its OWGR bid.

In October of 2022, Chacarra’s decision to join LIV paid off as he won the LIV Golf Invitational Series Bangkok event for his first professional victory in just his fifth start.

A former All-American for Oklahoma State University who had planned to return to school that fall, he instead changed his mind and signed with LIV Golf, then captured that win and a $4 million prize.

His score also helped his Fireballs team, consisting of Garcia, Abe Ancer and Carlos Ortiz, to a team victory. That meant an extra $750,000.

LIV Golf announced Friday that Spaniard Luis Masaveu, 22, would join the Fireballs team for this season, which begins next month. He is the replacement for Chacarra.

At the time of his decision to join LIV Golf, Chacarra cited the lack of easy pathways to the PGA Tour among his decisions. The PGA Tour put in a place a new “PGA Tour University” to give college golfers a direct path to either the PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour. For 2023, it would have offered him just a handful of starts after leaving school with no guarantees.

The Tour has since strengthened that program to give direct access via a points system to either the PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour via college and amateur success.

Chacarra faced the possibility of not being brought back for 2025 because he finished 39th in the individual standings. While those below 48th were to be relegated out of the league, only those who finished among the top 24 were assured of returning.

Because Chacarra no longer had a league contract, the Fireballs could move on from him. None of the other 12 teams elected to sign him.

“I’m a winner and I was never treated like a winner” Chacarra said. “On the PGA Tour, Ludvig Aberg has one win and I have one win on LIV. He has one win on the European (DP World) Tour and I have one in on the International Series on the Asian Tour. So we have similar careers, but he has way more experience and plays more big tournaments, but we have the same wins.

“We have performed similar. What tours I can play on, I have won. Same with him. But he’s the No. 6 player in the world and everyone talks about him. But on LIV, I’m the only young guy who’s won, and they never talk about me. They always talk about the same guys.”

Chacarra went on to thank LIV for the opportunity and said that “at age 24 my life is set,” but “my mind is different now and I want to get to what I was dreaming about when I was little. Because obviously LIV didn’t exist when I was growing up. I was watching Tiger Woods winning on the PGA Tour and I want to do that.”

Although he has never been a member of the PGA Tour, Chacarra under current rules would be prohibited from competing in any Tour events until a year after he last competed in LIV, which was at the Team Championship in September. The PGA Tour has classified LIV tournaments as “unauthorized events.”

LIV Golf opens its 2025 season next month with the first of 14 events in Riyadh, followed by tournaments in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.